‘The town of Gundagai has unveiled a statue honouring two Aboriginal men, Yarri and Jacky Jacky, who saved the lives of a third of the town in an 1852 flood.’
Photograph: Michael McCormack, MP, Twitter

Yarri and Jacky Jacky are local heroes in the town of Gundagai in rural New South Wales. A town known for its statues – its claim to fame is a monument to a fictional Dog on the Tuckerbox – it has once again drawn attention to itself for its latest work of art. As statues are toppled and debate rages about history, revisionism and what monuments teach us about history and politics, the town of Gundagai has unveiled a statue honouring two Aboriginal men who saved the lives of a third of the town in an 1852 flood.

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The Wiradjuri people, who had lived on the land for more than 40,000 years, had consistently warned the European settlers not to settle on the river flats of the Murrumbidgee River because of flooding. Yarri and Jacky Jacky rushed in to rescue about 69 Europeans from rapidly rising flood waters on a rainy June day in 1852. It took 165 years, and it commemorates Indigenous history only in regards to its effect on white people, but the sculpture is the result of work of the local Indigenous people.

Is this the solution to our contested history, or at least a way we can reconcile the way we celebrate history now and how we can better reflect it in the future? What other statues should we be erecting, and what other names are missing from Australia’s national highways, parks and institutions?

Aunty Sony Piper, a member of the Yarri and Jacky Jacky sculpture committee told NITV she was proud of the statue: “To be Aboriginal men, there’s not many statues around and we wanted that to be in Gundagai,” she said. “For a lot of the tourists to come through and see about these heroes – these two Aboriginal heroes.”

Share your suggestions

What makes someone deserving of a monument? What would their statue depict – and should they be given a particular spot? Tell us what people and events you think Australia should be commemorating by sharing your thoughts in the comments below. We’ll compile the responses later.